Summary

In 2018, Pontoon Solution’s HR team gathered to rethink how they handled their performance management process.

As we began to brainstorm what our future performance management system would look like, we knew that the very first step would be to replace our extremely clunky manual process with more automation and technology.”

Jessica Clifton
Global Director of People Operations at Pontoon

With an urgent need to evolve their process into one that would generate engagement and put transparency and trust as key drivers, Pontoon looked to Avature to help make this vision a reality.

Their new and improved performance management system allowed for regular feedback and adaptability, transforming their paper-based approach into an accessible and agile technology platform fit for the future.

Since then, they’ve continued to build on that foundation, refining and expanding the system with strategic updates that reflect their ongoing commitment to optimization and innovation.

About Pontoon

Pontoon is a leading global workforce solutions provider, partnering with top organizations worldwide to address their talent needs.

They help place over 98,000 permanent hires annually and over 400,000 contingent or temp starters. They support their clients in designing and building talent strategies specific to their needs, whether they are looking for full-time employees, gig workers or upskilling opportunities for their existing workforce.

As a global organization that employs 970 people and conducts business in more than 60 countries, they hold themselves to equally high standards, always looking for better ways to engage with their workforce and provide meaningful opportunities for growth.

The Challenges

When evaluating the existing performance management model, the Pontoon team highlighted the main changes they needed to undergo to improve agility and inspire their workforce. These included:

• The goal-setting model needed to be updated to enable more flexibility, as it didn’t support updates or changes to individual goals if priorities shifted throughout the year.
• Conversations around feedback and development were infrequent, and there were limited ways to collect, analyze and use the feedback gathered for performance improvement.
• The entire process had been designed with compliance requirements as the priority, causing leaders to view it as a mere checkbox exercise instead of engaging in a meaningful process that drove performance and professional development.

When thinking of an ideal performance management system, Josh Bersin mentions that “the best performance management models are those that can support the management approach and cultural footprint of the organization,” underlining Pontoon’s priorities in developing their new approach.

Having worked with Avature for a long time and leveraged our solutions across the entire employee lifecycle, Pontoon looked to the platform again to help with their new vision: a business-aligned performance management system prioritizing trust and transparency.

The Main Objectives

According to Gallup, only two percent of CHROs from Fortune 500 organizations strongly agree that their performance management system inspires their employees to improve. Employees tend to share this perspective, with only one in five reporting that their performance reviews are transparent, fair or inspire better performance.

With that in mind, Pontoon set out to build an agile performance management strategy by turning it into a process that drives value and action. It defined its objectives as follows:

• Empower people leaders to control the process by rethinking the role of HR as facilitators and delegating this responsibility to their leaders.
• Create an agile, goal-driven approach that gives employees the autonomy to manage their own goals.
• Incorporate frequent and future-oriented check-ins.
• Capture real-time feedback from multiple sources.
• Harness the ability to measure performance management impact within their business.

We implemented a much more continuous approach to performance and development that motivates employees to not only accomplish their goals but also to develop a better relationship with their people leader.”

Jessica Clifton
Global Director of People Operations at Pontoon

The Roll-Out

Pontoon recognized that successful adoption hinged on effective change management, emphasizing how the shift was communicated and introduced across the organization. To support this, they rolled out the new solution in phases:

Phase 1

The first phase of the rollout entailed minimizing disruptions to daily operations. Before adding other components, employees and management could adequately adopt some elements. The objective was to drive value in bite-sized chunks.

Phase 2

The second phase included introducing:

• Informal check-ins that allow employees and leaders to track weekly or biweekly meetings in the system and include notes to refer back to.
• The ability to receive and request feedback from peers and leaders, promoting a continuous and seamless process.
• Pontooners could also provide core-value-related praise to any employee at Pontoon.

Phase 3

In 2023, Pontoon further expanded its Performance Management solution, integrating it with the hiring and learning instances. Some of the important updates that were introduced include:

• Managers can now submit requisitions through the same portal. Whether assessing an employee’s performance or initiating new hiring requests, these tasks are completed in one place.
• Alongside standard performance evaluations, they now track learning objectives, which factor into bonus decisions. This expansion of the performance management portal better reflects the employee’s professional development.
• Employees now earn profile badges, adding a new layer of recognition.

Far from final, this is an ongoing phase in Pontoon’s strategy, which allows for future innovation by keeping in mind that employee and organization goals are constantly evolving.

The Outcomes

With Avature, Pontoon’s revamped performance management strategy delivered staggering outcomes:

• They provided employees with goal-setting autonomy, building trust and boosting engagement in a more intuitive and dynamic process.
• Feedback is timely and effective, focused on team members’ growth and development. These insights help employees improve performance, and their accomplishments are recognized in real time. This praise and feedback are not anonymous and promote trust and transparency. The tool is intuitive and easy to follow, driving adoption and engagement for all parties involved.
• Managers now benefit from a centralized experience that combines performance management and requisition submission. For employees, the system is more actionable and rewarding, with performance evaluations, learning goals and recognitions being presented together.

All goals and projects are now recorded in real time in the tool. So as goals and priorities change throughout the year, our teams are able to log into the system and make those updates in real time.”

Jenna Dobbins
VP of Human Resources at Pontoon

Making Agile Performance Management a Reality

Pontoon brought an ambitious vision to life with Avature, their long-time partner. Their performance management system enhancement is an example of what can be achieved when you have flexible technology that can adapt to your challenges and evolve with your needs.

With check-ins, feedback and praise documented in the system, this approach to performance management ushered in a new era in Pontoon’s talent management journey. By aligning goals and priorities, Pontoon has positioned trust and transparency at the center of its process.

As we say at Pontoon, performance management never felt so good.”

Jenna Dobbins
VP of Human Resources at Pontoon